The Griot's Craft

Sekouba 'Bambino' Diabaté by Ken Braun

On the release of The Griot's Craft (STCD1117) in November 2012 

On CD  iTunes UK  iTunes US

Sékouba Diabaté is, as his surname suggests, a jeli. A jeli is a griot of the Mande people of West Africa; a special person who has inherited the responsibility of remembering history. From his parents and grandparents he learns Mande history and genealogy, and with practiced skill he recounts this knowledge in oratory, epic poetry and song, reminding listeners of the tragedies and glories of the past and the lessons to be applied to the present and the future. The Diabaté name (spelled Jobarteh in some countries) denotes one of the most celebrated West African jeli clans. 

Sékouba Diabaté was born and raised in northeastern Guinea, near the border with Mali, at the heart of the ancient Mande Empire, whose history goes back eight centuries, as does its canon of poems and songs. By the time he was 16 years old Sekouba was famous in his native region for his command of the canon and his strong, soaring voice. His reputation reached Conakry, the coastal capital of Guinea, and in 1983, when he was 19, he was asked to join Bembeya Jazz National, the pre-eminent modern Guinean band. Most of the members of Bembeya Jazz were in their 40s, so young Sékouba was dubbed Bambino – the Italian word for “baby”. Why Italian? He’s not sure, but Bambino has been his professional name ever since.

After eight years with Bembeya Jazz, Bambino embarked on a solo career. Producer Ibrahima Sylla brought him to Sterns, first to sing with Africando, the multinational salsa band, and then to record Kassa, an album of contemporary African pop. Soon after that CD’s 1997 release, I had the good fortune to hear Bambino in a more traditional mode. 

I was invited to a party in New York, given by the Guinean Ambassador to the United Nations in honour of the new Malian Ambassador to that august assembly. I should have known not to show up at 8 o’clock, regardless of what the invitation said: almost no one was there. Over the next couple of hours other guests arrived, slowly filling the ballroom with voluminous robes and headdresses in dazzling colours, making me feel conspicuously white and dull.

Eventually the host and the guest of honour entered and made their rounds of the room before giving speeches. It was nearly midnight when dinner was served, and it was only after the last dishes had been cleared away that musicians set up at one end of the room and began playing. Beautiful music – a koni (lute), a pair of koras (harps), and a pair of balas (xylophones) – but it was a long and stately piece that, following a rich meal, had a lulling effect. I wasn’t the only person who appeared to be dozing. 

Then suddenly Bambino strode onto the floor and the energy level in the place surged by a magnitude of ten (maybe eleven). He looked splendid in a shiny purple and gold robe. He needed no microphone to be heard resoundingly above the instruments in this large room full of people, even as the instrumentalists visibly and audibly turned their output up several notches. Everyone was transfixed.

After a rousing song that got the audience clapping rhythmically, Bambino shifted into an epic. Without understanding his Maninka words, I could see in his gestures and hear in the way he raised and then dramatically lowered his voice that he was telling a story. He had everyone’s rapt attention as he walked over to the ambassador from Mali and sang directly to him, the words whirling off his tongue with rising fervor until everyone burst into applause and the ambassador stood up and placed a handful of cash on Bambino’s shoulder. 

Bambino began every song with his arms stretched wide, as if to say “This is for all of you”. Then, well into the song, he would approach a man or a woman in the audience, a couple or a family with children, and fix his gaze on theirs. To me, an outsider, it felt almost too intimate and almost too bold, but, clearly, those being serenaded so magnificently felt privileged. Inevitably, out came the money – which, I believe, bespoke genuine appreciation. One gentleman in a finely-tailored European business suit pulled from his breast pocket not only a wad of banknotes but also a white handkerchief which he dabbed at his eyes as Bambino sang to him.

I had seen similar performances and gratuities many times in Africa, but never on such an advanced level. Here was a trueborn jeli at work in front of bona-fide aristocrats – people with long pedigrees, accustomed to employing jelis. A man at my table leaned toward me and said, sotto voce, "Bambino has done his research. Before he entered this room he must have looked at us and identified all the important families represented here tonight. He knows, better than they, all the great deeds done by their ancestors. That's what he's singing for all to hear."

Bambino’s diligence and skill paid off. Those were not single dollars that his assistant picked up from the floor, but $20, $50 and $100 bills, and by the evening’s end there were lots of them.

The next day Bambino (wearing jeans and a T-shirt now) showed up at Sterns. "I've bought a car," he said, "but I don't have enough money left to ship it to Conakry. I need $2,000. Can you help me?"

My colleagues and I went downstairs and out onto Broadway to see the car. It was a sky-blue Cadillac – not new, but big and fine. Back in my office I called my boss in London, who laughed and said, “Yes, yes, give him the money.” 

A couple of years later, when Bambino returned to New York to lend his voice again to Africando, I asked him about his car. He grinned and said "Everybody in Conakry knows Bambino's American car."

Ken Braun, New Jersey 2012

Players on The Griot's Craft

Sékouba “Bambino” Diabaté: lead vocal

Amie Dante, Mba Kouyaté, Alama Kanté, Mama Keïta: backing vocals

Djessou Mory Kanté: lead guitar

Kerfala Kanté: bass

Djely Mory Diawara: percussion

Kaou Kouyaté, Badie Tounkara: ngoni

Arouna Samake: kamele ngoni

Abdoulaye Koussougbe: percussion

Kaba Kouyaté: balafon

Kabinet Kanté: guitar

Papus Dioubaté: guitar, bass

SEGUN ADEWALE AND HIS YO-POP DREAMS

As we make digitally available for the first time some of Sterns Music's first ever releases we take a look back at those exciting times in the early eighties.

Sterns did not have the resources of Chris Blackwell's Island Records, but that did not deter the UK's first fledgeling record label devoting itself to popular African music from throwing everything we did have at the time into the mix. Stunning cover art from Kofi Ankobra, the son of radical white South Africans who grew up in Ghana and had studied art at Oshogbo, Nigeria, coincidentally the birthplace of Segun, and performances in the UK and Europe that were road-managed by Charles Easmon.

Keeping a 21-piece group on the road, comprising musicians who'd rarely been outside of Nigeria let alone to Europe, was a work of art in itself and the stories are legion. Needless to say it couldn't last, and despite the best efforts of Don Bay, Robert Urbanus and Charles at Sterns, it didn't. Nevertheless the two albums that Sterns released from this time – here, for digital release for the first time, each with extra tracks previously unreleased outside of Africa – are a testament to the energy of the times and surprisingly but gratifyingly, sound as fresh today as they did then. With current interest in West African music, it's good to note that at least as regards Nigeria, it hasn't always been “Fela! A New Musical”


In his own words co-founder of Sterns Music Charles Easmon dips into the past and remembers those heady days touring with Segun Adewale:

"Back in the early eighties, Nigerian juju music made its way into the international arena with the 1984 Island Records release of Synchro System by King Sunny Ade. European and US tours soon followed.  Back in Lagos, a new generation of musicians with a harder sound was rising to challenge the masters, King Sunny Ade, Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, I.K.Dairo, and Prince Adekunle.

First among these was Segun Adewale. Prior to going solo, Segun had started with Adekunle’s band, left with singer Shina Peters to form the highly successful Shina Adewale, and finally split to do his own thing.

On signing with Sterns in 1984, Adewale’s rising popularity at home was due to the development of his own style, which he branded yo-pop (Yoruba Popular Music), a funkier, tougher sound.  In his own words, “ It took me a lot of time to put the new sound together. I studied funk, highlife, reggae, and rock. I was looking for something that could cross all the lines to make my music accepted in other parts of the world. When you don’t understand our language, but can dance to our rhythms, you are doing alright.  But the main thing we do is capitalize on the guitars (6 in all).  We’ve got wicked strings.  And my strikers, they strike bad.” Yo-pop at its best is captured on these 2 albums Play for Me and Ojo Je, re-released by Sterns digitally for the first time in July of 2012.

I had the good fortune to tour manage Segun and his 21-piece band on their first UK tour.  It gave me an insight into the world of juju music. The band was led and musically directed by the lead talking drummer, simply known as Captain, and there was a disciplined hierarchy below him. A guest of honour at our performance at Queen Elizabeth Hall in Edinburgh was the Nigerian Consul to Scotland and the embassy staff.   He came backstage prior to the performance, bearing gifts – a crate of whisky, a crate of brandy, and 6 crates of beer.  The imbibing of the gifts did not start until we were on the bus on our way back to London. Segun himself spent the entire journey fast asleep on the back seat. Meanwhile someone sang a line in Yoruba, someone else started a body beat.   One by one, they all joined in, and kept the singing going all the way to London. On arrival, I asked Segun how he had managed to sleep through it, he said it was no problem and that what I did not realize was that from a spontaneous beginning, a brand new song had been created, that juju music was all about transforming the energy of happiness into music. Sure enough, the new song was played for the first time to the public at our next show.  

Inspiration, spontaneity, fluidity, flexibility, and joy are all in the juju mix, and it is that which gives these classic albums their timeless quality."


Play for Me now available to download on iTunes:
UK US

Ojo Je now available to download on iTunes:
UK US

Moussa Ngom and KSF Productions - Senegal

Moussa Ngom on iTunes US UK

With the international success of Youssou N'Dour, Senegal is well-known as a source for some of the most exciting and creative music that Africa can offer. But beyond the awareness of established stars such as Youssou, Baaba Maal, Ismaël Lô or Thione Seck, what's perhaps less well-understood is just how important to the internal economy and identity of the entire Sene-Gambian region, is its music as a commercial enterprise.

But while Senegal is hailed as one of the most stable nations in Africa, this stability has not meant that its music is immune from the very same problems that beset the industry globally. Producers have flourished and more recently wilted with alarming regularity as they try to keep pace with changing trends and technologies. One of the important record labels which emerged from Senegal’s home-grown music industry was KSF Productions.

The high-point of KSF Productions was probably during the 1990s and in that time they were responsible for some classic and influential recordings that helped forge a unique and proud West African sound. Recordings that, to date and despite their manifest success within the region, have had very little exposure outside.

A perfect example are the two releases from Moussa Ngom, 'Circulation Lamp Fall' and 'Gal Gui’ with which we kick off our exposure of this deep catalogue.

Born in The Gambia, Moussa was already a member of the group Sangamarr in the late 1960s when he was invited by his older brother Laye Ngom, to join Guelewar in the late 70s. Guelawar had picked up the torch of success from Gambia’s Ifang Bondi and with a psychedelic tinge to their music and the scarcity of original legitimate releases, have been ensured cult status amongst today's bloggers and crate-diggers.

But Moussa moved on and the mid-1980s found him in the company of fellow vocalists Momodou Maiga and the magnificent Omar Pene as a member of Super Diamono during perhaps their most dynamic and successful period. History is hindsight and in those days, based on the music alone, it would have been a brave bet that chose between Youssou's Etoile and Omar Pene's Diamono for future international recognition.   

Moussa left Super Diamano in 1988 and courtesy of an anonymous commentator on YouTube we pick up the story around 1995 when:


“Moussa made an historic decision to link up with the Ensemble Lyrique Traditionnel du Senegal. These musicians were the resident traditional orchestra at the National Theatre Daniel Sorano in central Dakar.

The recording featured high resolution digital recordings of some of the best players of traditional instruments in Senegal. No one had heard the bass balafon sounding like this before. It simply blew the whole of Senegal away. Everywhere you went by taxi with the radio on you heard the track Circulation Lamp Fall as you attempted to navigate the 'emboutilage' of the Dakar traffic.

It started a trend for other modern musicians to record in the same traditional style that continues up to the present day as an acoustic counterpoint to the modern electric 'marimbalax' style."

Moussa had begun his career singing the 'kassak' songs performed at traditional male circumcision ceremonies and he once remarked that it was only after returning to this traditional style that he had his first hit, 'Circulation Lamp Fall', on his own ticket.

Today Moussa Ngom's status in Senegal is assured and he has been awarded one of the highest honours in the country, the 'Chevalier of the National Order of The Lion'. Like the more well-known, at least in the West, singer Cheikh Lô, Moussa is also a Mouride or more specifically a 'Baye Fall', a follower of Ibra Fall a.k.a. Lamp Fall ('the light of Mouridism').

Les Baye Fall huile sur toile (c) Mary Baird-Smith

The Mouride are a Sufi brotherhood with their headquarters in Touba a couple of hundred kilometres inland from Dakar, although devoutly Muslim the Baye Fall sect smoke marijuana and can abstain from work just so long as they walk the hot dusty streets chanting praise to Lamp Fall while collecting money for the cause. With their long Rasta-like locks or 'strong hair', wooden bowls for donations and wearing a patchwork of multicoloured cloth known as N'diaxas, they are a visible presence on the streets in Senegal and Moussa reputedly adds to this patchwork by wearing odd shoes. Always the same style, but in contrasting colours.

In another parallel, intentionally or otherwise, of Rastafarianism, Moussa is regarded as a spiritually-inspired musician but with a strong political consciousness. Perhaps there is no equivalent in our popular music of the West, but what is clear is that Moussa Ngom's music is deeply felt, deeply rooted and immensely popular.

Iain Scott with thanks to Paul Hayward & Mark Hudson  

STERNS CLASSIC EAST AFRICAN SERIES

This article comprises extracts from Douglas Paterson's original notes for Sterns Music's East African series. The full essays plus song translations from the original Swahili can be found in the booklet accompanying the CDs, or downloaded as a PDF when purchased as a full album from iTunes.

ISSA JUMA and Super Wanyika Stars 

World Defeats The Grandfathers

Swinging Swahili Rumba 1982 - 1986


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For nearly thirty years, the "Wanyika" bands were a sensation in Kenya. Institutions of renown they were a dominating presence in Nairobi’s nightclubs and recording industry, and in their heyday there were three or four bands each simultaneously bearing a Wanyika name, together with several spin-off groups operating under different names. 


The rumba music these bands played had its stylistic origins in Tanzania but rather quickly took on a unique Kenyan identity. It was propelled by light percussion, the rhythm often on the high hat cymbals and conga drums and made sweet with a delicate interplay between rhythm and solo guitars. The sound was instrumentally sparse with a rich bass filling the gaps in  syncopated bursts. Trumpets and saxophones were sometimes used in recordings but rarely in live performance. On top of this were simple two-part harmony melodies in Swahili that could be widely understood across East Africa. This was the defining sound of Kenyan Swahili rumba in the late 70s and early 80s. Issa Juma was a pivotal voice in creating that sound and taking it in new directions as the 80s progressed. 

Like the other founding members of the Wanyika groups, Issa was born in Tanzania. Coming from the north coastal Tanga region, he started his music career age 15 singing for several groups in his home area, and was soon on tour in Uganda with one of those groups, the Green Guards. Over the two and half years he stayed in Uganda, he shuttled between several groups performing in Tanzanian, Congolese, and Ugandan styles before returning to Tanzania in 1970. He then made his way to Dar es Salaam and eventually joined up with the Police Jazz Band, but he was only with them for six months before they sent him back to Tanga to start a sister group. Issa was now well-known in the region for his vocal abilities, and this brought him to the attention of Kenyan music producer A.P. Chandarana, who invited Issa to join Kericho Jazz as their singer. Issa accepted and, in April 1971, he made the move to Kericho in the tea country of western Kenya. This group soon split up but Chandarana hired Issa as a recording assistant in the studio. During his time in Kericho, Issa married, started his family and recorded a couple of not very successful numbers. 


Issa Juma & Super Wanyika Stars - "Barua (The Letter)" by Sterns Music

By 1977, however, the urge to be a successful performing musician brought him to Nairobi where he worked with Orchestra Kumba Kumba and, in late 1978, he joined the first of his “Wanyika” bands: Simba wa Nyika (Lions of the Wilderness). This group had begun as Arusha Jazz in the early 70s when Tanzanian musicians took up residence in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa. It wasn’t long before they changed their name to Simba wa Nyika, then Simba Wanyika, and, in 1975, they relocated to Nairobi. The band was well received and gained a considerable following, but not without some internal problems. Issa had been with the group for only a month when a number of members decided to leave and start a new group, Les Wanyika. Issa joined them as their lead vocalist, and Les Wanyika took off with a string of number one hits including Paulina, Sina Makosa, Pamela, and Kajituliza Kasuku. With Les Wanyika, Issa Juma finally attained the critical recognition and popular support he had been looking for, and his powerful baritone voice was indisputably recognized as the best of the Wanyika clan. It’s also clear he had an independent streak and wanted creative and entrepreneurial control of his music. In June 1981 Issa quit Les Wanyika to lead a new group formed with members of another Simba Wanyika offshoot, Orchestra Jobiso. This started off as Super Wanyika but quickly came to operate under a variety of names (often simultaneously) such as Wanyika Stars, Super Wanyika Stars, Waanyika, and Wanyika “Super Les Les”. Super Wanyika got off to a brilliant start with a number of hits and even some limited international exposure through their inclusion on the compilation ‘Djalenga’ (Swahili Records) released in the UK in 1983. Some of the earliest Super Wanyika recordings have a Congolese flavour in the guitar mix and the full horn section, and this is one of the interesting aspects of Issa Juma's 
music: his sound could change with each record producer and each session, even when with the same producers. One recording might suggest a Congolese influence, another (e.g. Mwanaidi), would have a rhythm and solo guitar interplay reminiscent of Les Wanyika, while yet another might merge elements of Kenya’s benga style with Swahili rumba. Of the different Wanyika bands, Issa Juma’s groups brought more variety from one recording to the next, and perhaps a greater willingness to challenge the boundaries of Kenyan Swahili rumba. Under Issa’s leadership, his branch of the Wanyika lineage was perhaps the most innovative, adventuresome, and prolific of all.


The songs in this collection were recorded for AIT Records in Nairobi between 1982 and 1986 and represent no fewer than five different sessions with a different mix of band personnel for each session. His groups were always in flux with disputes over the ownership of the Super Wanyika name, band members coming and going en masse, plus guest musicians brought in for recording sessions. Yet they also performed long stints at Garden Square and Mumias Bar in Nairobi, and toured widely in other parts of Kenya. Despite the ever-changing personnel, Issa’s music always had the powerful, raspy, pitch-perfect sound of his own voice and throughout all the many band members, he carried the essence of Swahili rumba with brilliant rhythm guitarists providing that luscious, quietly active, quintessential rhythm sound. Kenyans, both urban and rural, seem to have been able to identify with Issa’s lyrics whether it be humorously touching on shady business deals or his continuing concern with social relationships and their many problems, where a common theme is, “Don’t blame me, you brought these problems on yourself, but I’ll help you through them”. 

Another element Kenyans enjoyed were the band’s many ‘shout outs’ to various locations in Kenya (especially in a song like Mwanaidi where no less than a dozen areas across Kenya are mentioned). The shout outs for band members’ names in the recording sessions is also a clue as to which musicians participated. Thus, when you hear the name “Chou Chou” mentioned, it’s a reference to the high-pitched backup voice that on most songs belonged to the late Betanga Mazinere. Likewise, the fabulous solo guitar work in Mony and Maria is by “Adamu”, Adam Solomon (now in Canada) with superb rhythm guitar by “Abbu”, Abbu Omar Prof. Jr., who played with Simba Wanyika for many years and currently lives and performs in Japan. Issa Juma and Super Wanyika Stars performed in Kenya into 1987 but he was not always able to work because of difficulties with both his health and his immigration status. At one point in, 1984, he actually spent a couple months in jail for working without a valid permit. His health suffered from that incarceration and it this slowed his reentry into music. Then, in 1988, he suffered a stroke which affected his mobility and speech. His effectively ended his musical career, and he finally passed away in the early 1990s.

D.O. MISIANI and SHIRATI JAZZ 

THE KING OF HISTORY 
CLASSIC 1970S BENGA BEATS FROM KENYA


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As I entered, I immediately noticed a large banner pinned to the back of the stage:

Klub Oasis Presents

The King of History

Mw D.O. Misiani

D.O. ‘7’ Shirati Jazz

To Dance is your choice

This was July 2003 and I was in Kondele, just outside Kisumu (Kenya’s port on Lake Victoria) in the midst of a whirlwind musical pilgrimage. A long time before, when resident in Kenya during the 70s and 80s, I had often heard people refer to Daniel Owino Misiani as “Mwalimu,” meaning “teacher” in Swahili. But “The king of History” was new to me and, frankly, I didn’t know what to make of it. Did it refer to his long career in the music business and his position as the most influential performer to help shape Kenya’s benga style of pop music? Or perhaps it had another meaning? But today, whichever way you look at it, D.O. Misiani is the embodiment of the near 40 year history of benga music. 

I’d come to know his music in the mid-80s, first on radio and then in performance at the River Yala Club in Nairobi’s Kariobangi Estate. The fact that I didn’t understand any of his lyrics in Luo was of no concern to me. I was in it for the guitar and the great percussive and  syncopated bass lines. Guitars had started gaining popularity in Kenya in the 1950s and it wasn’t long before  enga started taking form in the Luo speaking areas surrounding Lake Victoria in the early 60s. Misiani was actually born across Kenya’s southern border in Tanganyika in 1940 in the Luo community of Shirati. His earliest years as a musician brought him numerous clashes with  uthority and several escapes to safer ground to avoid punishment. It seems he and his music were very popular with schoolgirls and young women, but the parents weren’t too keen on his seductive love songs and the authorities didn’t appreciate the fights among the young men over the girls. Misiani recounted several times that his guitars were seized and smashed, and that he had to leave the village quickly. He would disappear for a while, wait for things to settle down and then return. 

D.O. Misiani & Shirati Jazz - "Giko Piny (End Of The World)"

He first landed in Nairobi in 1960 where he met Daudi Kabaka, a popular
guitarist and vocalist from western Kenya already well-established in the local music scene and who mentored Misiani. In 1961, after returning home and failing again to reconcile with his family and the community in Shirati, Misiani went back to Nairobi and joined the Sokoto Band, with which he successfully toured Kenya’s coast and hinterland for several years. By 1965 he had patched up relations with his father in Shirati and married the first of his four wives. Back in Nairobi he linked up with Kabaka again and played in the Equator Sound Band through to 1967. He then set in motion the beginnings of what is perhaps Kenya’s most successful band ever. It
started as Luo Sweet Voice, became Shirati Luo Voice Jazz around 1972 and, in 1975, changed to Orchestra D.O. 7 Shirati Jazz, the ‘7’ possibly signifying the number of letters in his name. The songs in this compilation focus in on a relatively short time frame, 1973 to 1979, yet it is quite easy to hear the evolutionary trend in the music. 


All of the songs have the trademarks of Luo benga: a catchy guitar riff to start off the song, followed by flowing verses sung in unison or simple two part harmonies and played over gentle guitar fingerings with a very active bass line while the percussion steadily pulses. As the verse finishes, the lead guitar follows approximating the melody just sung. In the second half of the song, the verses fade away and the song moves into elaborate guitar soloing, rhythmic jams, occasionally interspersed with a vocal chorus.


The songs of the early 70s have a lighter percussion with the beat kept by tapping on the rim of a snare drum. They also mastered a rhythmic clicking sound using the electric guitar pick-up that is heard in a number of pieces. From about 1976 this sound changes with the use of a full drum kit and the deeper sound of the kick drum, with now the high hat receiving most of the attention from the drummer’s sticks. The saxophone heard in some of the earlier songs is gone. By the late 70s, we’re into the mature benga sound  exemplified by ‘Wang Ni To Iringo’ that propelled benga through the 80s and into the 90s.


While D.O. Misiani’s lyrics might not be much of a factor to non-Luo speakers, in Kenya, his lyrics were of great interest to several million Luos and to the Kenya central government. Though Luos represent the third largest tribal group in Kenya, they were often at odds with, and felt excluded from, the Kenyatta and Moi governments. D.O. was a commentator on the state of the Luo universe, so the government was very interested in what he had to say… and in making sure he didn’t say things that put the government in a bad light. Misiani wrote songs on all kinds of subjects; matters of the heart, social conduct, politics and exploitation, as well as praise songs for community leaders, politicians, and sports teams. He didn’t live to see the election of President Barak Obama in the US, but we can only imagine that he would have had some fun with the fact that a Luo man’s son could rise to become the US President while the Presidency in Kenya has so far eluded any Luo contenders.


Misiani was a composer without fear in an environment that threatened free speech and critical thought. In his early years, it was his love songs in his home village that had got him in trouble, and in the Shirati Jazz years (essentially the rest of his life after leaving the village), he was known for biting commentary on Kenya’s political, social, and economic institutions.  

However such criticism was never direct. His songs convey meaning at a deeper level. He would use a theme such as a verse or parable in the Bible, a piece of African history, a prophecy, or an animal fable that would allow listeners to draw a meaning relevant to the current events of the day. Periodically, when one of his songs could be interpreted as presenting the government or a politician in an unflattering way, the authorities would pick up Misiani and take him off to jail. At one point he was deported to Tanzania. 


Another time he was arrested – though not convicted – of being an illegal Tanzanian immigrant. Nairobi’s Nation newspaper quotes him in 2006 as saying: “Tell me, is there anything wrong with singing about what’s going wrong in our society? I just sing about what is happening and if some people are not happy, I can do little about it.” It is in this arena, I think, where Misiani really merits his King of History title. With its multiple layers of meaning, it accurately portrays both the status and the mechanism by which he achieved that status: keep it sweet, keep it entertaining but, at all times, keep it relevant. And today, among his vast number of fans in both Kenya and abroad, I think we can still say we’re “very happy” with his songs and the deep repertoire of music he has left us.


Daniel Owino Misiani died on May 17, 2006, the victim of a horrendous road accident just outside Kisumu. He was on his way home after a band rehearsal.

We miss him.

WESTERN JAZZ BAND

SONGS OF HAPPINESS, POISON & ULULATION

DAR ES SALAAM DANCING CLUB 1973 - 1975


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“Tanzanian music of the 70s is like country music in the USA.” This popped into the mind of my Kenyan friend as we looked over the lyrics for this seventeen-song Western Jazz collection. He wasn’t talking about the music itself but, when it comes to the lyrical content of songs, there are definitely some parallels: lots of songs about relationships gone wrong; topics that provide social commentaries on love, infidelity, deceit, poverty, and the strength and determination to overcome.

Image courtesy of John Kitime

What we have here are, indeed, Songs of Happiness, Poison, & Ululation; and if you don’t know what ululation is, it’s that high pitched, extended vocalization trilled with the tongue and uvula (the thing hanging down in the back of your mouth). You hear this around the world in celebrations and times of sorrow and you hear it from Western Jazz in their hit song, Vigelegele, celebrating the great enjoyment people will have when listening to Western Jazz and their saboso style. The very first song starts off with Rosa getting some 'medicine' from the traditional doctor that poisons her lover. Other songs call out issues of trust among lovers. In others, wives can’t keep a secret, “bad friends” are talking rubbish, there is no one you can trust and a guy can’t get a break:  country music for sure.

For nearly twenty years, Western Jazz Band and Dancing Club delighted East Africans from their home base, the Indian Ocean port city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The band actually formed in 1959, two years before the end of British administration in Tanganyika. Many of the original band members came from what, at that time, was Western Province and other locations in the west. Formed as a regional association, Western Jazz was both a band and a dancing club. The idea was to give migrants to the city from western Tanzania a place to meet friends, socialize and hear good music, though members were welcomed no matter where they came from. 

Western Jazz Band - Rosa

This band and music club organisation was quite common in the 1950s but can be traced back to the 1930s with the Tanganyikan African Association Jazz Band, Dar es Salaam Jazz and Morogoro Jazz Band after 1944. However it wasn't until the 1950s that dance bands multiplied in Dar es Salaam and started appearing in towns throughout pre-independence Tanganyika. Some of the more well-known groups of this kind include Atomic Jazz and Nyamwezi Jazz (later renamed Jamhuri Jazz) whose origins date back to 1954 in the north coastal town of Tanga. In Tanganyika's largest city, Dar es Salaam, Ulanga Jazz and Rufiji Jazz Band formed in the mid-50s and Kilwa Jazz came together circa 1958.

Image courtesy of John Kitime

Western Jazz Band and Dancing Club was one of the last to take this organisational structure. At the time, only a few musicians in the voluntary clubs were getting paid but both musicians and music supporters paid dues, which supported the organizational expenses and rental of performance halls. In this spirit, Western Jazz was:  "a club band and every member would like to know clearly how the business is been run" (from a letter by George Kitali, Secretary).

The songs in this compilation were all recorded between 1973 and 1975, a very active time for the band in terms of 45 rpm releases out of Nairobi, not to mention singles and an LP release in France which were then redistributed to areas far and wide within Africa. Western's saboso style is famous for lovely crisp clear guitar work, with the second guitar often played in complex rhythmic patterns while the solo guitar is off with an enchanting melody or sparring in an equally complex counter rhythm. Although there are pictures of the group with at least a partial drum kit, that is not what is heard in these recordings. There is no thumping kick drum.  Rather, you hear a percussive stream from the conga drums, the occasional strumming on the electric guitar pickups, the staccato bass and the flow of saxophones; overall a thrilling mix of rhythm and melody.  

VIJANA JAZZ BAND
THE KOKA KOKA SEX BATTALION
RUMBA, KOKA KOKA & KAMATA SUKUMA: TANZANIA 1975 - 1980


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This was in 1975 when, as it turned out, it was a lot easier to buy Tanzanian records in Kenya where they were manufactured, than it was in Tanzania and while it wasn’t hard to find lots of great African vinyl in Nairobi, it meant I had to devote my last two days in Africa to an intensive listening campaign in record shops and sidewalk kiosks. But what started off as a favour to my friend ended up, for me, as a lifetime passion for East African music and I owe at least a part of that passion to a couple of songs featured in this collection. For more than 35 years I’ve had the songs Magdalena and Utatugomabanisha on call and playing on-demand in my head, so that now it’s my distinct pleasure to be able to share these two and fourteen more by the Vijana Jazz Band.

Vijana Jazz got their start in late 1971, an example of the emerging model of musical sponsorship through various governmental bodies that was taking hold in Tanzania. Band members were salaried employees of their sponsor-managers. The Swahili word vijana means “youth” and reflects Vijana Jazz’s management by Umoja wa Vijana, the youth wing of mainland Tanzania’s ruling political party, TANU. Two years later, Vijana Jazz acquired the services of vocalist/composer Hemedi Maneti, who took a fundamental role in shaping the group’s sound and went on to lead the band from 1982 until his death in 1990. Although Kenya and Tanzania were on divergent development paths in the early to mid-70s, the East African Community partners were still on relatively good terms (though less so with their Ugandan partner under the brutal dictator Idi Amin). Kenyans and Tanzanians could  ravel freely and work in each other’s countries. It was a time when the citizens of both countries felt a sense of brotherhood and optimism for the future. 


VIJANA JAZZ BAND 'THE KOKA KOKA SEX BATTALION'  - Magdalena

Tanzanian music was enjoyed in Kenya on radio, in clubs, and it was a significant component of the record industry. Tanzanian bands frequently made the 24 hour trip from Dar-es- Salaam to Nairobi to record songs that would be released on disc over the course of the year and our compilation centres around this fondly remembered time in East African history. 

As I scoured the AIT Records archive for Vijana materials, I was puzzled by a set of songs under the artist name “Koka Koka Sex Battalion.” I knew those words as a frequent shout-out in Vijana Jazz songs such as the  tatugombanisha, but this required a little more digging. As I suspected, Koka Koka Sex Battalion was indeed Vijana Jazz, but under an assumed name. This turned out to be a scheme of the studio  producer who, working with the band, tricked the label bosses into commissioning more songs than budgeted. The producer made more money with each song recorded and the band got more upfront money, but the label did not want to release too many songs from the same group so was not amused when the scam of one band for the price of two was  iscovered. Thirty-six years later their loss is our gain.


As is the case with Tanzanian dance bands, each group tries to distinguish itself from the others with its unique mtindo (style). In 1975- 76, Vijana Jazz recorded at least three studio sessions in Nairobi for AIT Records’ Moto Moto and Africa labels. This was the era of the koka koka mtindo, in its earliest form it was highly rhythmic with congas and what sounds like beating on a hollow log in something akin to a clavé beat. The instrumental, Koka Koka No. 1, is a perfect example of this. 

VIJANA JAZZ BAND 'THE KOKA KOKA SEX BATTALION' - Koka Koka #1 

In later recordings, koka koka lightens up on the ‘log’ sound and moves to a more subdued snare drum tapping out a marching drum sound in a similar beat (for example, in the last half of Pili Nihurumie). 


This is a precursor to a Tanzanian sound that came to dominate the “Swahili rumba” of Nairobi from the late 70s through the 80s with groups like Les Wanyika and Issa Juma’s Super Wanyika. Interestingly, in a song like Stela wa Kenya, I hear what might be a Kenyan benga influence in the way the lead guitar fills in at end of vocal phrases, and in later solos while the rhythm guitar is quietly but actively chording and embellishing.


Vijana Jazz seems particularly attuned to the Kenyan audience in these recordings with not only Stela but several songs referencing Kenya, Kenya’s President Kenyatta, and various Kenyan institutions. Our album focuses on songs recorded in Nairobi at the famous Hi-Fi Studios in 1975-76 where most of the great benga singles were captured. Prior to this release very little of Vijana’s koka koka era has been available anywhere. Although koka koka was Vijana’s signature mtindo, also prominent in the later Nairobi recordings were frequent references to kamata sukuma, kamata meaning “grabbing hold of” and sukuma meaning “pushing” or “moving.” I don’t think kamata sukuma ever became an official mtindo of Vijana Jazz but it did merit a shout-out along side koka koka in many songs including three in our collection: Salima Utakujajuta, Pili Nihurumie, and Kamata Sukuma No. 2. The latter actually spends the entire song talking in a joking way about the meaning of kamata sukuma.


“The Koka Koka Sex Battalion” has not only the big hits of the time, for example Magdalena and Niliruka Ukuta, but also contains songs that give one a broader sense of the group stylistically in 1975-76, something like you might hear in live performance. It includes songs in Tanzanian languages other than Swahili, together with songs that draw on folkloric tradition like Dibweze Zogolo Jangu. In addition we’ve included three songs from later periods which provide a glimpse of the evolutionary trajectory of the band in the late 1970s towards the pamba moto style that defined Vijana Jazz for the 1980s.